Shooting process!

Hi there! In this blog post I’ll share my shooting process for my project, how we set up the setting and props, and also some behind the scenes videos. 

First, me and my parents set up the home lab at my kitchen countertop with the lab equipments that we bought on Amazon. We filled each beaker and lab tub with water, since we would add food coloring inside them. Here are some pictures of my dad organizing and filling them up: 

We started filming the lab scenes that will appear in the middle of my opening first because we thought these were the easiest and most fun scenes to film. One thing that we had to think about when filming these lab scenes was the lightning. I wanted a more yellowish color tone to make the environment more comfortable, since the scientist was working at his personal home lab. So, we decided to close all curtains and turn all house lights off and only leave the yellow floor lamp at the living room on. Honestly, it was really easy to film these scenes because it didn’t require any acting, since I mainly used close-up shots of my dad’s hand doing the experiments, and it was really fun to record also. Here is a short video that my mom recorded of me during the process of filming one lab scenes: 

After that, we filmed the scene that comes right after the opening scene (which is my dad just entering the house). This is one of the first scenes of the film and it shows my dad sitting at his chair and opening the FBI folder. I couldn’t film the scene with the FBI folder yet because the prop that I ordered will only arrive next week. So instead, I decided to film the scene of the extreme close-up shot of  my dad’s eyes, showing him reading the files and crime reports. Here is a BTS video that my mom recorded of me filming this scene: 

And finally, we filmed the last scene of my opening. It was a medium shot of my dad receiving a phone call of an unknown number to tell them that he found the evidence needed about the suspect through his DNA tests. I used my dad’s old phone to call his original phone because I was using my phone to record the scene, and my mom used hers to film the behind the scenes video. Since I was the one recording, my mom was the one in charge to call my dad’s phone. Here is the BTS video that she did:

I finished recording the majority of the scenes over two days, I’m just missing 2 short scenes that I’ll record next week because I couldn’t do it this week. The first one is the quick flashback scene of the crime and the other is the scene showing the FBI folder with the crime report because I ordered the folder online and it only arrives next week. Other than that, I finished all major scenes and will start editing shortly!

Overall, it was really fun to shoot these scenes because my parents worked really well and they helped me a lot. Also, I could really feel like I was a real life director, so it was really nice to create something like that!

Group meeting #2

For our second group meeting, we were assigned into a new group with 7 different people: Lydia, Emma, ​​Benjamin, Amelia, Cristina, Eli and me. We talked about our projects' progress, some production footage and ideas for our CCR's. 

Lydia went first and she explained that her film opening is a sci-fi story about a scientist who wears futuristic glasses that can see the future. In one of those visions, she sees her death and she tries to find out why and what happened that caused her to die. Lydia is working with a group and she said that they filmed almost everything already. Also, she isn't sure of how to do her CCR, but one of our group members suggested that she could do something related to science and lab, like experiments, since it has to do with her story.

Lydia's blog: https://blogging4scool.blogspot.com/ 

Emma was second and she said that her opening is a mystery thriller about a girl called Raven (which spells nevar backwards and it sounds like “never”, and this word appears many times repeatedly.) who is accused of killing her best friend. The film starts with her already in a prison cell looking stressed, writing “Raven” backwards many times on the wall. They created the prison set using paper bars and a dog cage inside Emma’s room, which I thought was really nice. They also did an interrogation scene at her dad’s office as if he was the police. During this scene, she has flashbacks that show that she didn’t actually commit the murder. For her CCR, she plans to do an interview with her dad acting as the police officer. 

Emma’s blog: https://blogcreation4school.blogspot.com/

Benjamin was the next one and his opening is a thriller/mystery that starts with a teenage boy in his car with blood on his hands with police sirens in the background. He said that the opening starts with the ending scene and after that first scene of the boy in the car, the film cuts to a scene of the boy alone in his room. He starts answering the text message that his mom sends him asking where he was, but then he decides to call her, but a man answers his call instead of his mom. He starts asking where are the keys that are under his doormat, but they weren't there. After that, the man tells him to look at the mailbox and the scene ends with the boy shocked and scared. For the CCR, he said that he was still thinking of ideas, but we suggested that he could do something like an interview. 

Benjamin’s blog: https://universidadcatolica0.blogspot.com/

Amelia was the next up and she explained that her opening is a coming of age story about a girl never left her hometown to live somewhere else, so she has a dream of traveling a lot to discover what’s outside in the real world. However, she feels like her parents are kinda pushing her back, since they want her choose a college close to home and to them. For her CCR, she said that she isn’t sure of what to do also, so we suggested that she could also do something like an interview or a conversation between the director and the audience. 

Amelia’s blog: https://amesaicemediastudies.blogspot.com/

Cristina is also doing a coming of age movie, but it’s about a 17 year old teenager called Evan who is a DJ that is just starting his career. The film starts with a flyer for an audition to open for a famous house music DJ. The flyer says 18+ only, which is a problem because Evan is underage, but he doesn’t let that stop him, though. He rips off the part that says “18+” and starts making beats to prepare for the audition. For her CCR, Cristina said that she was thinking about doing it with her sister and then Amelia suggested that she could make a type of podcast. 

Cristina’s blog: https://crisc999.blogspot.com/

Last but not least it was Eli’s turn. Her opening is a thriller about a character who has schizophrenia and is accused of murder, but he thinks that he saw his psychologist kill someone. There is also a wolf character that it isn’t real, it’s only inside his mind, like he’s having an episode. Her and her group already started filming and they plan to meet again this week to finish the last scenes. For her CCR, Eli is thinking about doing an interview style video where she interviews her main character, but she’s still figuring out exactly how she wants it to look.

Eli’s blog: https://eliwritess.blogspot.com/

I think it was really nice to share our ideas with different people once again. Here is a picture of our group:

Company logo creation

Hello, in this blog post I’ll explain the process of creating my company logo!

So, to create my logo I chose to use Canva because I think you can create many things there really easily. I searched for “movie company templates” and chose the one that I liked the most. I edited the background and elements colors, as well as the text. I chose to use “GFS Studios” as my company name because I wanted a short, but simple name, so I decided to use my initials for it. 

For the colors, I chose to use a black background since my opening is a suspense story and I wanted to keep the aspects in my opening simple and serious, including the logo company since it appears right at the beggining and is the first thing that viewers see. I kept the movie clapper board element black as well to match the background. Also, I chose to use a light grey color to create my name, “GFS”, because I wanted to keep the color pallet of all elements in the logo within the same tones. 

After editing the text and colors, I decided to add motion and animate the elements. I clicked in each element and went to the “animate” section of my Canva page and chose the ones that I liked the most. I decided to make each letter appear slowly, at the same time that the clapper board slowly appeared from the top right corner of the screen. I wanted to add motion because it makes the logo look more creative and fun.

Here is the screen recording that I did from my laptop, showing step by step of how I created my logo: 

Finally, here is my finalized logo!

Prop Creation!

Hello and welcome back! For one of the props that will be used in my opening, I decided to create an FBI folder with a crime report case file inside of it. I will have a scene where Dr. Werner opens the folder and looks at the criminal’s file with the informations of the crime that he is running DNA tests as part of the investigation. A close-up shot will show the criminal’s face (Kate Lima) on a wanted poster, as well as a crime report with the type of crime she committed to make the audience understand what kind of investigation Dr. Werner is helping to solve. 

So, I bought this folder online and I thought it would work really well for my project since it shows FBI on the cover and it looks pretty realistic: 

Now, for the crime report file inside, I chose an online template on Canva and I edited the original information on the template and added the information of my suspect, Kate Lima. Here is a picture of the original template and the edited one that I will use in my opening: 

For the wanted poster of my suspect, I took a picture of my mom’s passport photo (since I needed a picture where she looked serious), and then I blurred the picture on my phone to make her seem more mysterious and not show her detailed face yet. Then, after I blurred the picture, I edited another Canva template of a wanted poster with a mugshot background and put my mom’s picture on top of it. Here is the original template and the finalized one:

Finally, the last prop that I created was the DNA analysis report. I once again created this on Canva but for this one I couldn’t find a ready-made DNA report. Instead, I chose a medical report template and edited it into a DNA report document. I had to do a little bit of research to see how real DNA analysis reports looked like, so that I could make it more realistic and accurate to a real life scenario. I gathered the most important details and elements that I needed to add in order to create this document and wrote my character’s information there. Here is the original template and the one that I created: 

Costume Creation!

Hi there! So, today I’ll show you the costume that my main character, Dr. Werner will wear throughout the opening. 

My dad will play Dr. Werner in my film and since the character is a scientist, I decided to buy a lab coat on Amazon to make it very realistic. I also told my dad to wear a plain white shirt inside the coat to match the colors and make it look more professional. Also, he gave me the idea to add a small detail, but it could still make a difference, which was adding a pen inside his pocket to make him look even more like a real scientist. Here is a picture of my dad wearing his outfit, ready to start filming: 

 

Characters background

Hello everyone, and welcome back! In this blog post I'll be talking about Dr. Werner's, my main character, background and I'll also explain a little bit more about the other side characters who appear really quickly in my opening and who they are. 

So, Dr. Werner is a well respected forensic scientist from New York with more than 20 years of experience who has been working at the FBI for over 15 years. He has always been interested in science and investigations and he decided to follow the career because when he was just 19 years old, the hospital accidently swapped his baby with someone else's daughter. After more than 20 years, he is still in search for his biological daughter, that's why he decided to pursue the career of running DNA tests in order to try to find his kid one day. Dr. Werner is really serious about his job and was recently promoted to be the director of the forensic science department in the FBI, so he is the one in charge of searching and solving the major and most serious cases reported involving any kind of DNA testing.

Now about the side characters! So, the blurred picture of the suspect inside the folder at the first seconds of the opening is a woman called Kate Lima who committed a murderer, as listed in the files, which will be clearly shown with a close-up shot to make the viewers understand what that's all about. The victim was Dr. Vanessa, the last director of the forensic science department (that's why Dr. Werner assumed her position). But who is that woman? The criminal is actually Dr. Werner's missing daughter who was swapped when she was born! You would have to watch the movie to discover that, but all these information are hidden in the opening to keep the suspense and mystery of like "who is the murderer?", or "who is the victim?", or "why did this happen?".

And last but not least, the unknown number who calls Dr. Werner during the last scene of the opening is one of his coworkers who is helping him to solve the case. 

I hope you could understand a little bit more about my characters and my story as well! 

My project’s audio elements

Hey there! In this blog post, I will break down the audio elements for my film opening and explain them,

For my opening, I decided to keep most of it almost silent, instead of using a lot of different sounds or dialogue. I chose this because my film is a suspense and crime story and silence can actually make scenes feel more tense and serious. Instead of loud music, I will use a very soft suspense background sound that slowly builds tension throughout the opening. This helps create a feeling that something important is happening, even when not much is being said.

Along with this background sound, I will include a few small sound effects to make certain moments stand out more. For example, I will add sounds like a “transition” sound to show the scene of the scientist putting his gloves on, to indicate that now the opening focus will shift to lab experiments and chemistry. Also, I will use a type of  “boom” sound drop during a slow mo scene where the liquid is being dropped in the beaker to make it sound more dramatic. Right after this scene comes the crime flashback scene and at this moment, the suspense music in the background will stop and a sound of ambulance will appear to make the audience focus on that scene.

One of the most important techniques I will use is silence. So, at key moments, especially when the scientist discovers the result and the DNA analysis says “positive”, I plan to remove all background sound completely. This creates a strong contrast and makes the moment feel more dramatic and important. Right after that, the phone ringing will be louder and clearer, which helps break the silence and grab the audience’s attention.

When the scientist says, “I found her,” I won’t include any music, so the audience focuses only on his voice. This makes the moment feel more serious and mysterious and it leaves the audience with questions about what will happen next.

Overall, I wanted the audio in my opening to feel simple but powerful. By using very little sound, soft suspense music and moments of silence, I can build tension and keep the audience interested without needing a lot of dialogue or loud effects.